BSkyB rapped over anti-Virgin promos

Ofcom has ruled that a series of anti-Virgin Media promotions that BSkyB ran last year fell foul of the regulator's broadcasting code.

BSkyB ran a series of 11 different TV promos on its own channels in February and March last year, which ran a total of 2,500 times on-air, highlighting the fact that services such as Sky1, Sky News and Sky Sports News were under threat of being ditched of Virgin Media's 3.4m cable homes.

At the time the two companies were locked in ultimately fruitless negotiations to try and thrash out a new carriage deal for Sky's basic channels on Virgin Media's cable TV network.

BSkyB's basic channel package was pulled from Virgin Media's service on March 1 last year after the two sides failed to reach a deal, although premium channels such as movies and sport remained available.

Ofcom received 187 complaints from viewers who thought Sky's tactics were unfair to Virgin Media.

The regulator grouped the promotions the BSkyB ran into four broad categories, transmitted before and after the broadcaster's channels were dropped from Virgin Media's cable TV network.

Most of the promotions were aimed at Virgin Media customers and appeared on Sky's channels broadcast on the company's cable TV service.

The tone of the promotions, while carriage negotiations continued, was that Virgin Media "doubted the value" of the Sky channels and if cable customers did not want to lose shows such as Lost and 24 they should "urge them [Virgin Media] to keep the TV you love on air".

After BSkyB's basic channel package was removed from Virgin Media's service the former continued to run promotions on its premium movie and sports channels, which were still being broadcast in cable homes, and also ran a promotion on its own digital satellite TV service.

Some of the promotions called on Virgin Media customers to switch to Sky's digital satellite pay-TV service.

Among the complaints to Ofcom was that Sky's promotions were "intended to inappropriately influence confidential commercial negotiations and to damage Virgin Media's relationship with its customers".

In its defence, BSkyB said that there was a "significant risk" its basic channels would be dropped by Virgin Media and as a result it determined that it needed to communicate their likely availability to viewers.

BSkyB considered that an effective method of promoting its channels would be to "include a message inviting cable viewers to call Virgin Media in support of the Sky channels".

The company said that it was clearly in the interests of viewers that they be informed about alternative ways of receiving the Sky channels.

Ofcom considered whether the four groups of BSkyB promotions broke the cross-promotion code.

The media regulator concluded that BSkyB went beyond just promoting its own channels and a launched a "targeted campaign to get viewers to lobby Virgin Media not to drop the Sky channels".

Ofcom also found that BSkyB's campaign to get Virgin Media customers to switch services also broke the cross-promotion code.

The media regulator said that the references to Sky's retail TV service were unduly prominent in promotions designed to push channel content and therefore broke the code for cross-promotions.

Ofcom said: "The references to the Sky retail television service were clear and unambiguous 'calls to action' to viewers to subscribe to the Sky retail television service and accordingly went beyond information about the availability of the Sky channels."

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